


The Writing's on the Wall

by Iliketalkingtoyou



Category: My Mad Fat Diary
Genre: fluffy fun, maybe a tiny bit of sexiness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-10
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2019-02-13 03:55:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12975345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iliketalkingtoyou/pseuds/Iliketalkingtoyou
Summary: The girls get a bit tipsy for Izzy's hen night and meet a boy from their past.





	1. Chloe's Bit of Fun

Rae fell ungraciously onto the toilet seat, banging her elbow against the door on the way down. “Shit,” she mumbled before getting down to business.

As she sat – ignoring how cold the seat felt pressed against her thighs – she tried to count the penned notes that were scattered all around her on the cubicle walls. One, two, three, four…wait, she had counted that one already…six, seven…wait, that wasn’t right. Fuck, there was too many swimming around her eyes. She really had to stop with all the tequila shots. Bloody Chloe. Blooming Izzy. Lovely Izzy. Lovely hen night. Too much drink.

Her mental maths was all over the place in her drunken mind, but she could still read so she settled on skimming through the writing on the walls instead. A few little notes were cute, ‘Amy + Hannah BBF’s’, ‘Rhys = great snog’ or ‘Christine + Connor 4Eva’. Rae blinked at them all, smiling at how small the world was with all these people living and loving together right here …before she realised that any of those people who wrote the notes had probably sat bare arse exactly where she was right that second. She stood quickly, and made a mental note to take two showers when she got home.

As she was leaving one slanted, scribbled note to her left caught her eye:

‘Finn Nelson: BEST SEX IN STAMFORD. Call 07673843356! You won’t regret it!’

At first Rae shrugged and moved to flush but then she looked back and something scratched at the back of her head. Some long forgotten piece of information was itching away… Something she recognised…Finn Nelson…

“Fucking hell,” she said with a small laugh. Finn Nelson, a moody but gorgeous guy who went to her college. She had to tell the girls.

Izzy and Chloe were in the middle of an apparently hysterical conversation by the time Rae got back to them so she immediately interrupted, slamming her hands down on the table to grab their attention, “Guys, do you remember Finn Nelson?” She knocked over Izzy’s half-finished Vodka and Lemonade in her haste, but ignored it.

“From college?” Chloe asked, grabbing tissues from her bag to clean up the mess.

“Hmm, yeah, old friend of Chop’s before he moved away someplace?” Izzy piped in, readjusting her Bride-To-Be badge. “Think Chop invited him to the wedding but he has some family thing or somethin’. Chop moped about for a few days-”

“Whatever. Yes. He was a total dick, if I remember, but you have to see this-”

Grabbing the girls by the hand Rae shoves them into the loo cubicle and points out the ridiculous note. She looked at her best mates expectantly, waiting on their laughter. Neither did. Izzy got all excited and lovey, clasping her hands together. “Awe, do you want to call him Rae? I always actually thought he had a crush on you, I think Chop said something-”

“What? No. Look, he’s clearly a slag. Look! Who puts that on a toilet wall? Come on…” Rae looked between the two of them. “Chloe?” She prodded.

Chloe was biting her lip, then raised her eyebrow to Rae. “Well…do you want to call Rae?”

“What? No!”

“Come on! It’ll be a right laugh!” Chloe grabbed Rae’s arm and swung it slightly. “I don’t think toilet walls lie, but even if they do…what a story! You shagging Finn Fucking Nelson from College!” Chloe suddenly got all giggly and gave herself the hiccups.

Rae peeled her arm away, and shook her head. “I don’t even think he knew who I was.”

“Oh it’ll be fun, Rae. I swear.”

Rae rolled her eyes and gave an exaggerated sigh. The hilarity was obviously lost on the girls. Both of them loved up in their own ways forget that small pleasures like laughing at an old hottie-turned-whore are all single people have to get through the loneliness. “No, Chloe.” Rae said firmly, and that was the end of that.

Only it wasn’t because when they got back to their seats Chloe pulled out Rae’s phone from her bag and started texting.

“Chloe what are you doing…?” Rae watched wide eyed and frozen as Chloe ran to the toilet and came back with a cocky grin. She shoved the phone in Rae’s face so she could read the text:

‘Hey, Nelson. So I read you’re a great shag, want to put it to the test?’

Rae covered her face with her hands and groaned, “Chloe, what the fuck have you done?”

“Nothing, it’s a joke, Rae. Fuck, just relax. That’s probably not even his number anymore.” Chloe said. Then the phoned chimed. “Or maybe it is…”Chloe muttered, picking up the phone.

Rae leaned over her friends shoulder.

‘Who’s this?’

“Oh my god, Chloe.” Rae tried to grab the phone but Chloe moved it out of her reach.

Izzy tugged on Rae’s sleeve. “Awe, it’s alrigh’, Rae. It was just a laugh, Chloe won’t text him back. Right, Chlo?”

“Uh, yes I will!” Chloe made a face at Rae “Look, Rae-” she said as she typed, “It’s been ages since you last… well…you know… you need to get it out your system. Keep everythin’… up to date.” Rae thought she might throw up. “And who would really say ‘no; to Finn Nelson.”

Rae rolled her eyes, “Chloe, it doesn’t matter how many times you say his name. It’s not going to make this any less embarrassing for anyone.”

Chloe sighed and handed the phone to Rae, she read:

‘Who’s this?’

‘Your best nightmare, babes ;)’

‘Who the fuck is this?’

‘Why don’t you guess and I’ll treat you if you get it right?’

Rae groaned, and considered murdering Chloe for perhaps the 18th time… that day. Damage control was her best option.

‘Sorry, that was my friend. Your number is on a toilet stall, she got it from there.’

Okay, that was fine. He won’t text back. Rae sat back down and swirled her pint around while Chloe flipped her hair, obviously agitated. The phone chimed again.

‘Why the fuck is my number on a toilet stall?’

Rae frowned, he shouldn’t be taken this out on her. She considered not even replying. Chloe shifted beside her, “Are you still texting him?”

“Yeah, he’s being a dick. Just like in school.”

Chloe huffed. Rae tapped the phone against the table before deciding to reply.

‘How the fuck would I know?’

‘Sorry. What pub?’

‘The Swan, in Stamford.’

‘I’m on my way’

Rae just about spluttered her pint all down Izzy’s new pink sash. “Shit shit shit shit-” She flung the phone in Chloe’s direction.

“What now?” Chloe picked the phone up from the swampy, alcohol mess on the table. “Oh,” She laughed, “This is amazing. You should totally ask him out, Rae!”

“Wait, what’s happenin’-” Izzy dived for the phone. “Rae, this is great! Like a meet-cute! A really weird one, but still!”

“Are you kiddin’? He probably thinks I’m nuts.”

“No…” Izzy coddled, holding Rae’s hand. Her eyes were so big and innocent and serious that it was a little silly looking coming from a girl who was wearing a broken tiara with a penis on it. “He won’t think you’re nuts, but he will think you’re drunk.”

“I am drunk.”

“So there’s no problem!” Izzy said, laughing.

Rae huffed. “Okay, okay. It’s fine. I’ll just let him walk in and we’ll ignore him. Alrigh’?”

The girls nodded. They didn’t speak for a while until Chloe remembered she had a card game that was made up of a bunch of topless men.

As Izzy was shouting “Snap!” The door swung open and Finn Fucking Nelson From College strolled in wearing a leather jacket and the hottest glare she had ever seen.

“Oh my god.” She heard Chloe whisper, “He got hotter. How did he get hotter?”

“Fuck me…” Rae whispered. Izzy giggled and nudged her arm as Finn walked past them almost in slow motion. Rae had never seen anyone walk in slow motion before but she was sure time was slowing down, solely for the benefit to ogle Finn Nelson with her blurred vision.

He went straight to the bar, his jaw jutting out and his back straining as he leaned to speak directly into the bartender’s ear.

The bartender was an old friend of Rae’s, Danny. She had fond memories of him, a lot of ducks and hats came to mind but she can’t quite bring those childhood memories to the forefront while in full view of Finn Nelson’s backside. Danny nodded at Finn then stalked off to the toilets.

Rae watched as Finn Nelson took a seat at the bar. He ordered a drink from the other server and sat awkwardly staring at his phone. His shoulders sagged for a second and the next thing she knew Rae’s phone was buzzing, ringing. Loudly.

And the number? Why, of course, it was Finn Nelson. He turned in their direction and Rae blinked at her ringing phone unable to move.

Someone somewhere nearby asked, “Are you going to fucking answer that or what?” But he was miles away from her. She had just been outed to Finn. He now knew – or rather has a right to assume, since it was technically Chloe who started it – that Rae Earl wants to sleep with him.

She turned to Finn who clenched his jaw then pressed a button on his own phone. The phone stopped ringing, but her ears continued to blare. Finn walked right over.

“You think it’s funny?” He didn’t shout but he might as well have. She faintly felt Chloe and Izzy move closer to her. “You think taking my number like that… thinking you can text me for-for something like that? You think that’s acceptable.” His eyebrows came down shadowing his eyes when he was angry.

“Um…”

“Oi! Alrigh’, calm down. It was just a joke. We’re sorry.” Chloe said, jumping to Rae’s rescue. Thank god, because honestly Rae couldn’t come up with a single word to reply. For once in her life.

Finn eyed Chloe, weighing her up but Rae’s best mate sat firm and glared straight back. Finn shook his head before he went back to his stool.

Rae felt fidgety. It wasn’t even her fault, she didn’t write anything about him on some wall. All she did was recognise his name, she hadn’t meant to cause any fuss. In fact she had probably done him a favour. At least it was her who texted him and not some pervert. And by texting him, she indirectly helped him get the number of the wall.

She did him a favour, and that was exactly what she was going to tell him.

“Hey!” She called as strutted over to him. She wondered if it was the adrenaline rush or the booze that made it difficult to walk. Probably the booze, she thought, as she fell right into his back. “Sorry,” she mumbled before flicking her hair and starting her rant.

“Look. I’m sorry if I offended you, but we are out having a good night and I recognised your name and told my friends over there who thought it’d be funny to send a text. We didn’t even know if it was your real number, alright? It was a bit of a laugh. And even so, we did you a favour because now obviously it isn’t even up there anymore. So, whatever. Be a dick. Sorry for hassling you.”

And she turned on her heel, and walked straight out the pub. Chloe and Izzy were giggling but right behind her.

When Rae woke up the next morning and her phone was ringing she assumed it would be Chloe, “Fuck you, Chloe. I hate you so much right now.”

“Uh, it’s not Chloe.”

“Shit,” she mumbled and sat up. The room decided this was a perfectly good moment to turn upside down so she fell back down on the safety of the pillow.

“Sorry. Have you just woken up? It’s after two. In the afternoon.” The voice was a boy’s. Not very usual for her.

“Who is this?” She ignored the question and slight judgmental tone.

“Finn.” He sighed, “Nelson. From last night. With the number on the toilet wall.”

“Oh,” Rae frowned, piecing back together one of the more dramatic moments of the evening. There were other moments from last night just as dramatic and frightening, such as Izzy nearly losing her shoes somewhere outside the Martell and Chloe definitely losing her dignity in the nightclub, Dusk. “Oh fuck.” She said, nearly slapping herself. Finn Nelson From College. “Oh, god. Okay, I’m sorry about last night, we were–we were very, very, very drunk-”

“Yeah, I know that.” His tone suggested that he was annoyed. Rae gulped against the growing lump in her stomach.

“…Okay.” She sighed, squeezing her fingers into her eyes. She needed a glass of water. “Look I’m sorry, again. I won’t talk to you anymore-”

“No! Wait! I just- I wanted to apologise. I was a bit hard on ya, and I’m sorry. It’s no excuse but I had a shitty day and then… I don’t know. I saw you making fun of me and I snapped-”

“Oh, we weren’t making fun of ya.”

“Righ’.”

There was silence on the other end. Rae wondered if she was possibly hallucinating the conversation. It all seemed a little surreal and nuts. Definitely crazy.

“Are you-are you busy tonight, Rae?”

Was she busy? “Sorry?”

“Are you busy? I wondered if we could meet up?”

“Uh, I don’t know.” It was Saturday last night. Today was Sunday. She normally sat around in her pyjamas and tidied the house on Sundays, but she couldn’t tell him that. How pathetic that would sound. “I have work tomorrow.”

“Could we meet for coffee or somethin’?”

There wasn’t one possible scenario that Rae could have conjured up in her wildest fantasies that would make sense for her to go for coffee with Finn Nelson From College.

“Are you going to shout at me some more?” She asked, hesitantly.

Finn laughed, “Well, even if I did, I’m sure you could handle it.”

Rae blushed, she blushed.

She was smiling when she said, “Okay. When and where?”


	2. Rae's Breezy Tone of Voice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rae and Finn figure out who they are to each other

Coffee with Finn Nelson from College involved a lot of awkward silences. Rae shifted in her seat and took a sip of her - rapidly cooling - hot chocolate.

“So, what you been up to since college?” She asked. Chloe had given her a list of questions to ask Finn, and when Rae had told her to “fuck off! She wasn’t going to fucking interview him!” Chloe told her that she had to suck it up and “just ask him in a breezy tone”. Did Rae have any idea what a “breezy tone” was? No, of course she didn’t.

“Not much, really.” Finn replied. He held his mug with two hands. “I worked in Leeds for a bit before coming back ‘ere.”

“Yeah. You left just at the end of College.” He nodded, she took another sip. “So why’d you come back? Can’t imagine you missed Stamford all that much.”

Finn smiled, “No, didn’t miss it much. Just thought it’d be good to get back.”

Rae sipped. “Yeah? That’s cool.”

Finn nodded. Rae nodded. Finn nodded some more. Rae nodded some more.

“Well…” she sighed, placing her half-finished cup on the counter, it was far too cold to continue drinking now. “I better get back, haven’t done any washing up since Friday. The woes of living alone and all.” She smiled and rolled her eyes in that ‘what can you do?’ kind of way that she saw other girls do at the office.

Finn nodded and stood up, “I can give ya a lift home, if you want?”

“Um…” Rae hesitated. He seemed sincere, but he could just be being polite. Their entire conversation had been painfully awkward. She had apologised again, he had told her to forget about it, what else could he possibly want from her? “Finn…” Well, she had started now, might as well go for out. “Why did you ask me out for coffee?”

Finn leaned away from her. “I just- I thought it’d be nice to see ya. Catch up or summat?”

“Catch up? We didn’t even talk in school?”

“No, I know.” He didn’t elaborate. He left the answer sitting there in the air, as if it was one of those balloons that had lost enough helium to be stranded mid-float but hadn’t deflated enough to have fallen to the floor yet.

She went to the next logical conclusion. “Chloe has a boyfriend now. Just so you know. And he’s tall. Really tall. Bigger than you…”

Finn looked around behind him as if someone else might be there, then back to Rae. “That’s… good to know.”

“Exactly,” Rae watched him take a sip of his coffee, “So I wouldn’t try anything with her,” Finn choked on his coffee.

“No! I – I wasn’t going to-Shit!” He put the coffee down, sloshing some over his hand. “Think I burned my tongue.”

“Why are we here, Finn?” Rae pressed, she didn’t want to spend to long contemplating the issues regarding Finn’s tongue.

“Well, I was trying…” Finn shook his head, “I was trying to ask you out, Rae.” Finn murmured into a napkin. He scratched behind his ear, but wouldn’t make eye contact with her.

She laughed, “Okay.”

“I’m serious, Rae.”

She looked around to check she wasn’t on candid camera. Then back at him. She shifted in her seat. “Was this? Is this a date?” She asked pointing quite specifically at her cold drink.

Finn shrugged, “its coffee.”

“You’re not angry about last night?”

Finn laughed a little, “You were very, very drunk. We’ve all done stupid things when we’re drunk.”

“Right,” she at back in her seat and watched as Finn twirled his mug between his hands. “Who wrote your name on the toilet stall wall?” It’s not that she had been thinking about it, she was curious.

Finn blinked at her, “How should I know?”

“It’s not like an ex or something?”

Finn shrugged and raised his eye brows in a way she had never seen anyone else raise their eyebrows.

She heard the front door open as a couple walked in and considered storming out in some dramatic fashion to show him just how dense he was being; instead she wrapped a scarf around her neck, and muttered “Fine, you can take me home” with her wide eyes and tutting lips.

He smiled as he brought her into his car. He smiled wider when she asked if he had any music.

“Yeah, ‘Course. Check the glove compartment.”

The handle was tricky so she tugged a little too hard and out poured around twelve CD’s. “Shit,” she grumbled. She picked through the mountain of discs, piling them into her lap.

Finn laughed, “S’alright, it’s always a mess. Archie’s always fiddling about wi’ it. You can put on whatever you want.”

Rae didn’t ask if he meant Archie as in Archie. Her Archie. She couldn’t put Archie and Finn together in her head. They existed in two completely different sections of her brain, like Blur and Steps, or Stacey Stringfellow and Albert Einstein, Chloe Gemmel and good music taste.

She flicked through the CD’s, surprised to find some actually good albums. “Oh my god. I can’t believe you have this in your car. I thought everyone forgot about Inspiral Carpets apart from me.” She shoved the CD in.

“Don’t be silly!” Finn laughed, “early 90’s had some of the best tunes ever made. Nothin’ like the shit nowadays.”

Rae laughed too, “I know! And did you know Noel Gallagher-”

“Was a roadie for them? Yeah I did.”

Rae looked at Finn as he smiled smugly at the road. “You knew that?” She asked.

“Course.” He snorted, “I don’t know what you know about me Rae but I know my music.”

“I know my music, too.” She murmured.

“Yeah,” She heard Finn sigh, “but I knew you did.”

-

That night Chloe asked her what she thought of Finn, “I don’t know really.” She said, scraping two-day-old Heinz soup from a pan, and tucking the phone further under her chin. “He was… not what I was expecting, maybe?”

Chloe huffed, “Well, that’s not very descriptive, is it?”

Rae rolled her eyes, “He seemed alrigh’. Alrigh’?”

“Rae. God, do you have to be so-”

“What, Chloe?”

“Nothing. Doesn’t matter. Are you gonna go out wi’ him again?”

“He asked me out to dinner…” She said in as much of a casual tone as possible.

“Shit, really?”

“Yeah?”

“Fuck. What are you going to wear?”

Rae laughed, “No fucking idea. But it’s fine don’t bother callin’-”

“I’ll call Izzy.”

Chloe then hung up which left Rae to find a way of putting the phone back in its holder while both hands were covered in orange-y soap-y goo.

-

Finn picked her up exactly at the right time. He smiled and kissed her cheek, like all good dates should and took her to a relatively fancy Italian restaurant.

“Did you have a good week?” Finn asked, like all good dates should.

Rae hummed and nodded a little. Her week wasn’t too bad, really. The office where she worked was over crowed and the small articles that she wrote were boring and fluff pieces that didn’t mean anything to her. But there was a new kettle bought which meant that tea boiled twice as fast and so the amount of tea consumed was twice as much.

“Yourself?” She asked politely. She tried casually to shift her legs, her dress sticking to her thighs was becoming a real problem.

“Yeah,” he nodded and scratched behind his ear. She needed a safe topic, something they had in common. There was always music but she couldn’t think of a decent excuse to bring that up.

“Uh…” Finn started. He seemed as fidgety as Rae, surprising as she would have assumed he was more accustomed to this weird dating thing than she was. “Archie said you and him were mates at college?”

Rae chocked on her water. “Yeah,” she said, nodding and taking another sip to smooth the now itching pain.

“It’s just- you didn’t say anything. In the car.” Finn scratched behind his ear again. His eyes looked big. Hurt, but maybe not too much.

“No, well. I didn’t know if you meant my Archie”

Finn frowned, “Your Archie?”

“Okay… no. I meant-”

“S’alright.” Then he shrugged, and started playing with his fork. God. This stupid little boy.

“Finn,” she said, calmly putting her hands on the table, “Why did you ask me out?”

“Because I wanted to. I remember wanting to talk to you at college. You were so cool back then, with all your badges and I don’t know. I saw you the other night and thought ‘why not’?”

Why not?

Yeah.

Okay.

Alright.

Rae took a second to look at him. “My badges?”

He shrugged again, but smiled down at the shiny cutlery. “Yeah. Liked that Oasis one.”

“I still have it.” She smiled, “I think. Buried under a ton of boxes.” She waved her hand but she was considering digging it out again if it apparently got her the attention of cute brown eyed boys.

They both shifted as the waiter came placed their food down. “So.. .how did your week really go?” He asked.

“Well…” Rae sighed. “You’ll never believe this but I had this awful fluff piece to write. Did I tell you I work for the Stamford herald? God, it’s so fuckin’ ridiculous. They have me covering the under 15s football club, do you think I have any idea about football? No, I don’t. I don’t have a fucking clue Finnley but hey there they go. Most of the time I get to review any new albums but if we’re not paid to advertise them then we don’t bother and I’m shifted over to shitty columns like teenage football or fuck- I once had to cover a folk band.”

Finn laughed, “Serious?”

“Uh huh.” She rolled her eyes, “Fucking hell. It was brutal. Thought I might as well shoot myself in the head. What about you?”

“Have I ever considered killin’ myself at work? Oh yeah, plenty of times.”

Finn spoke about his work in Leeds as if it pained him but since coming back he had apparently felt a lot better. He told her why he wasn’t going to Izzy’s wedding. Some fight with chop. They stayed clear of any real personal details but she felt warmer to him. There was something inside her, somewhere in the torso region that was melting a little. Maybe it was just how good the Macaroni was.

“You enjoyin’ that? “He asked with a smirk as he drooled over the last bit, she hummed and nodded.

“Good. I’m glad you like it here. We can get dessert if you want?” She shook her head. She couldn’t afford it anyway.

Finn put his hand over hers as she brought her purse out. “Don’t be daft, Rae. Of course I’m payin’.”

“You don’t think I can pay my own way. I have a shitty job but I can fund myself.”

“I didn’t-I didn’t mean that. It’s just-“

“It’s the twenty first century, Finn”

“Look, Rae.” He put a hand over hers again, tighter this time. “I don’t want offend you, and if it really does bother you then you can pay your share. But I asked you out to dinner, I chose the place, Please. Plus I don’t have rent to pay since I’m back staying at ma dad’s until I get my own place. Alrigh’?”

It was only the last part that made her shove her purse back into her bag. But she made a big show of tutting at him and putting the tip down, so she felt vindicated enough.

Finn gave her a lift home again, and he let her pick the CD but he skipped through all the songs till it landed on She’s Electric. Rae hated to think that she might have blushed again.

He walked with her out the car but she stopped them at the main entrance door. She didn’t want him coming up just yet. Too soon.

“That was fun,” Finn smiled.

She nodded, “Yeah, we should do it again.”

“Yeah?” He was looking not at her but at his shoes. It was frustrating because she needed to see what his eyes were doing. She had never believed that thing about 80% of conversation being body language but having spent so much time with Finn there was no other way to find out what this boy was straining so hard not to say.

“Sure. Why not, righ’?” She said with a wink that he may or may not have seen.

He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “Bye, Rae,” he whispered against her hair. She watched him drive away.

As she was leaning against her front door, she told herself that her hands were only shaking from the cold, night air.


	3. Finn's 17 Dates Worth of Foreplay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If someone knows what the hell is Finn's problem can they let Rae know?

“It was long.” She told Finn, as she shoved a few chips straight into her mouth. “Mostly I just remember being drunk and hungry.”

Finn laughed as he nicked some of her brown sauce, “You sure it wasn’t all glamorous? You didn’t meet any handsome, young men? None of the Best Men do it for ya, girl?”

She rolled her eyes and shoved his hand away, “You mean the one and only gay best man? No, don’t think so.”

Finn nodded, and suddenly seemed more interested in the paper holding his chippy together. “Archie said it was a good nigh’.” He took a long slug of his beer.

“It was,” Rae admitted.

Finn was silent as he finished another mouthful. “I should’ve been there.”

“Yeah, you should’ve been.” She saw the hurt look on his face but she wouldn’t take it back. Chop had kept a seat available for Finn at the dinner, Finn’s dad had even turned up and held a toast to the happy couple, and Rae had dealt with phone calls from Chop every night on the lead up to the wedding for a week, asking if she was certain she wasn’t bringing a plus one.

Finn should have been there.

“If you would just talk to him-” Rae started but Finn got up for another beer.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said.

She got up and hugged him, wrapping her arms around him tight. She let her head rest against his neck, and sighed. A month together wasn’t long enough for Finn to open up to her about what happened between him and Chop but she knew they would get there eventually. And Rae would help him fix it when they did.

He turned and kissed her cheek, her forehead, her nose, then her lips. She smiled and whispered against his mouth, “Your breath stinks of chips.”

He laughed and kissed her harder. “So does yours.”

—-

Rae watched as Chloe flicked her way through Rae’s poor excuse for a wardrobe. Her friend had an interview for a new job on Monday and had decided that Rae’s wardrobe would be cheaper than any store. And that there was “no fucking way she was going to wear shoes owned by crinkly old women from the 1940’s” when Rae suggested a charity shop. Obviously, what a ridiculous notion. Its not as if Rae found just about her entire workwear from charity shops.

“Y’know, I can’t believe you’re still going out wi’ him, Rae.” Chloe said from halfway in the wardrobe, “I’m proud of ya.”

“It’s only been a month.” Rae said rom the bed, picking a discarded top up from the floor to stop it from wrinkling.

“I know,” Chloe continued, appearing with a fancy scarf Rae got from a holiday in Spain, “but still…you over-looking how you met and everything…It’s good of you.”

“What d’you mean?” Rae asked, feeling slightly patronised.

“Well, I mean…are you not…worried?”

“Worried about wha’?”

“The… stall thing?” Chloe whispered, despite the fact the only other person in the room was Izzy, sitting cross-legged on the floor blissfully ignoring them.

“Chloe, what the fuck are you talkin’ ‘bout?” Rae snapped.

Chloe threw her hands onto Rae shoulders, and speaking in her posh receptionist voice she said, “Finn Nelson from College disappears for years and turns up on a toilet cubicle in a shitty pub with the words describing him as ‘the best sex’ some girl has ever had. Aren’t you a little worried that he’s going to want …y’know, and then …skip out.”

“You think he’d do that?” Rae asked, yanking hard at a loose strand on the discarded t-shirt in her lap. Chloe only shrugged, and flicked her hair in response.

Izzy stood up then, from her corner of the bedroom. “No, well I don’t think he would. But I mean… it is a little weird that his name was on that cubicle. Did he tell you who wrote it, Rae?”

“Uh…no.” Rae hesitated, “He said he didn’t know who it was.”

Chloe hummed disapprovingly, picking up a new top to fiddle with. “Doesn’t it bother you that there’s some girl goin’ around saying that’s he’s the best shag in Stamford and you’re the one who’s going out wi’ him?”

“Well, now it does,” Rae grumbled.

Izzy placed a hand on her shoulder, “It was probably just a joke, Rae. Some ex-girlfriend or something. Finn wouldn’t just…y’know… hump and dump.”

Rae rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Iz.”

“Just be careful, Rae,” Chloe chimed from halfway inside the wardrobe. “I don’t want you getting hurt.” She pulled herself back out from the depths of the cupboard and peered at them from underneath a hat Rae had never gotten around to wearing. “None of us have seen Finn for years, for all we know he might just be the hump and dump type.”

But Chloe was wrong, in fact she couldn’t have been more wrong. The complete opposite is what actually happened, and by the third month of Finn and Rae being together, Chloe had been so wrong that Rae wished she had been right.

Finn and Rae hadn’t shagged. Not once in three whole months. Not. Once.

‘Steady’ was what she was calling it, and that was what she told Chloe and Izzy. Going out with Finn was steady. Steady.

And fine. It was fine. Really fine. So completely fine.

But fuck, no it wasn’t! If he didn’t just throw her up against the nearest wall and have his way with her soon, she was going to explode with pent up sexual frustration.

What was he waiting for? They had been on seventeen dates. Seventeen! And those were only the proper date-date ones where she wore dresses and curled her hair. If she was to count all the mid-week movies and home cooked dinners then that took it up to thirty three. Thirty three dates and Rae had still not been shagged. It was bloody ridiculous.

He had even introduced her to his dad. And he called her his girlfriend. Girlfriend. She was his girlfriend and he hadn’t even so much as stuck his hand down her pants.

What was he waiting for? Rae had been ready on their four week marker. They had already snogged by week two and Rae was sure that she would be quite content to just simply lie on top of Finn her whole life never moving her lips from his, but four weeks and she was ready to put everything on the table. Or the bed. Or the couch. Or any available surface with good purchase, really.

What the fuck was he waiting for?

She almost asked him once, the night of their two-month anniversary, but couldn’t bring herself to be the first one to admit how much she wanted him. They had been to see some hipster-y acoustic band she had had to write for one of her reviews, and Finn didn’t drink the whole night. He had promised he would give her a ride home, and she hadn’t drunk much either, in the hopes that she would need all the concentration she could gather…those buttons on his shirt had looked fiddly, after all. Not that she ended up finding out, anyway. He had left her that night, with a mind-blowing kiss and an ache between her thighs. She was resolved to think it wasn’t happening any time soon.

—-

Rae was still wearing clothes. She had never been more conscious in her life of the fact that she was still wearing clothes, “Finn,” she gasped as he seemed to envelope her in his arms, “Finn…do you want to-”

“Hmm?” He hummed as he trailed his lips down her neck.

Her hands were grabbing his shirt pulling him as close to her as was humanly possible. There was a hand on her thigh moving up and down gripping her tightly, there was another hand on her neck pulling it closer to his mouth. She could feel his back all tight and powerful.

He felt so powerful.

“Fuck,” she groaned, “Finn…why don’t we go to the bedroom, yeah?”

He stopped moving, she could feel his warm breath against the side of her neck. His hand moved from her thigh to her back, “Rae?”

“Yeah?” She tried to catch his eye but he seemed to be staring at the wall just behind her.

“I don’t-maybe not…” He kept his arms around her, but was leaning away. She tugged at his chin so he had to look her in the eye.

“Is there something wrong, Finn?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “No, I swear. Rae. Nothing’s wrong.”

“Yeah, alrigh’.” She whispered.

He looked at her. His eyes were so close she wondered that if she looked deep enough she would see into his brain an understand what the fuck was going on.

“I just don’t want to rush this with you, Rae. Not…” His voice broke, and he took her hand and placed it against his chest, “Not with you. Yeah?”

She wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. He looked at her as if he was waiting for a reply but she couldn’t bring herself to not be offended. She thought of what Chloe had said, about the girl from the stall wall. She didn’t want to be jealous but suddenly all she wanted to do was curl up in a blanket and cry.

She felt the grip he still had on her, how his arm had to stretch to go around her back. To get around her stomach. She thought of Chloe and Alec and how he could pin her in a grip with practically one hand.

She wanted to cry.

“Right,” She said as she straightened up. She pushed away from him and opened the front door, “I’ll see you soon.”

Finn blinked at her, Rae understood the hurt look, she was feeling pretty hurt herself. “Rae, d’you hear me? This isn’t you, this is me.”

“Yeah, I know,” she nodded. “I get it, Finn. Believe me, I get it.”

He leant in to kiss her check and it was familiar but unwanted. She leaned away. “I’ll call you tomorrow, yeah?” He asked, and she hummed a reply. The only light from the hallway was from her flat. She didn’t like that he would be left in the dark once she shut the door.

She closed it anyway.


End file.
